Reflections on 2009

Dear CityLiving Supporters,

It has been a challenging year, but we’ve come towards the end of 2009 with much to celebrate. The CityLiving Team has 442 sales through December 15th. It’s not the 500 sales that we had hoped for, but not bad, considering.

Newell and Mark, the resale listing team, accounted for 56 home sales of mostly tudors, bungalows and foursquares in 37212, 37204 and 37206. We end the year with 25 fantastic listings, two of which we’ve just received contracts on. We just listed a beautiful $1.26 million home on Sewanee Road off Granny White and have a lot of pending activity which will take us into the new year. We feel very good about our listing team, and have a lot of buyer broker support on our team to help our clients find their place, as we say at Village.

The CityLiving Team has sold many great projects this year, some of which were quite popular.

Icon in the Gulch has had great momentum and success in sales in 2009, and has proven to be the best of all the condo towers due in part to its prominent location in the ever-growing Gulch. Our team has closed almost 80 condos at Icon, all new sales in 2009.

We have closed the first 20 sales at Velocity in the Gulch. We have great price points, with lots of condos priced under $200,000, and we are poised to be the project for first time homebuyers this Spring.

We are sold out at West End Station, a Core Development Services community in Sylvan Park of 45 single-family bungalows and cottages. The final touches on the project will come in the next couple months, and we will close out the two remaining homes early in the new year. I encourage you to drive through this community at 36th and Nebraska to see the wonderful work Core has done. Core hopes to create more communities like West End Station in the future.

The Lofts at Werthan Mills – Phase IV sold through an additional 22 lofts this year, nearly closing out the largest phase at this wonderful conversion of the old bag factory. Of the original 120 lofts in Phase IV, we have only three left to sell and then we’ll be on to the final phase. This project is close to my heart as it was the first project started by Core Development.

The Glen in Hillsboro Village was also a huge success. We sold the last of 38 units in June.

We worked hard with banks to bring 5th & Main back out to the community, knowing that this was the best option for this distressed project. We convinced the bank to let us sell this project out from foreclosure by working with Freeman Webb to ensure total completion and implementing an official homeowner’s association. We are pleased to announce that we have 55 contracts, and hope to have continued success selling through all 129 homes in the coming year.

Construction of Rhythm at Music Row was completed this year and we started to close units in the Spring. We have been selling about three condos per month, and look forward to selling out this boutique high rise in 2010.

Casey Zolezzi, a Buyer Broker on the CityLiving Team, worked on Werthan Lofts and West End Station. He also did a great job at Spence Enclave, where we sold 22 townhomes at very affordable prices.

We are thrilled to announce the return of Marilyn Martin to the CityLiving Team! She took a hiatus to work on her music, but rejoins the team for some great work with buyers in 2010.

CityLife Lending Group had another successful year. We believe that having them located in our Hillsboro Village office adds significant value for our clients. In 2009, CityLife Lending was ranked the 19th highest producing branch in overall volume by the Nashville Business Journal. This ranking factored in all banks, mortgage brokers, and mortgage bankers throughout Davidson County.

Our top charitable endeavor this year is certainly Go Green, District 18. We launched this campaign on November 2nd with Mayor Dean and Councilwoman Kristine LaLonde. The campaign’s goal is to reduce District 18’s energy usage by 5% by the end of 2010. We hope to have 360 neighbors and 36 businesses undergo NES In-Home Energy Evaluations and retrofit their homes and buildings.

We have 95 homes signed up, as well as over 10 businesses, including The Belcourt, FIDO, Tin Angel, Sunset Grill, Rudy Title & Escrow, Cabana and Littlejohn Engineering. Erica Tober, who essentially runs our team, has been invaluable in promoting this campaign. Neighborhood leaders in Belmont Hillsboro and Hillsboro West End are taking up the cause, and we will hope to challenge other neighborhoods to also go green. Our goals seems within reach!

We appreciate your continued support of The CityLiving Team, and would love your referrals in the coming year. Please call or email me if you know of anyone we can help with their real estate needs.